Cottage Valmuska is spacious and well equipped. It is well-kept and owners are helpful. The views are beautiful.
The cottage, however, is not suitable for physically challenged (or young children) due to numerous steps down to dock.
The fact should be empathized in all information about the cottage.
We found the cottage not quite worth the price paid.
Very nice cottage in a quiet and beautiful location. Everything was clean and cozy. The hosts are very friendly.
It's a nice place for fishing and enjoying the silence. We could watch the woodpecker and other birds.
We are already looking forward to the next time.
We enjoyed our extended weekend at Kaidan Kunkku.
The cottage was well equipped. We liked the presentation tour, it was really helpful.
We are planning to rent this villa again during summer 2024. Cant wait to see how beautiful the nature is during summer.
This is a difficult review to write. The cottage is great, in a beautiful spot, well equipped, a sauna house with wood oven at a pristine lake. However, there are a few things the owner won't tell you on the website.
The minor aspect is the advertised private beach in addition to the jetty. One can see that it used to be there, but in cannot be used anymore as the path is overgrown with shrubs and the beach is overgrown with reeds.
The more critical aspect is that the house has been built as a passive house. In principle, this would commendable and should be praised, BUT it has been implemented in a way that radically effects the comfort of your stay. Imagine you have to sleep at 22°C or warmer even when the outside temperatures are well below 15°C because you can't open windows!!! And because the ventilation system can't handle heat generated by the plain presence of the guests' bodies. The approach offered by the owner was to use the air condition in the living room to bring down the temperature there below 18°C and then cool the bedrooms with a ventilator blowing air from the living room in one of the bedrooms at a time. Of course this means all doors have to be open and the living room is pretty darn cold. This is neither practical nor energy efficient. In any case, you'll have to sleep at 22 to 24°C which impairs the nightly human recovery mechanisms so that the whole point of having a relaxing vacation in a nice place becomes somewhat futile.
Imagine you want to enjoy the beautiful wood stove in the living room. This will heat up the living room quickly, but you'll need the AC to bring temperatures down when you want to go to bed. You could open the doors, but that aggravates the problem with the bedrooms as the central ventilation shuts down immediately when one or more doors are open, so the temperature in the bedrooms will rise and air quality deteriorates.
Our experience with comparable high quality pricy cabins is that owners tend to be generous when a small items breaks. Not the Valkonen's. We broke a coffee filter holder of an 15+ years old coffee machine, worth 16€. They asked for 30€ to replace it. Nevermind we paid 2815€ for a one week stay.
Overall, the experience has been mixed. A lovely house with major flaws and an unexpected lack of generosity.
Location: 5 star
Outdoor facilities: 4 star (because advertized private beach is missing)
Indoor facilities: 5 star
Comfort: 1 star (because of unhealthy room climate)
Communication with host: 3 star
Greetings Hinnerek!
Thank you for your visit to the Hapero villa.
Your review is really different from the general reviews. In the following, I will try to analyze the possible reasons for that.
Our rental concept includes about an hour of personal guidance on the technology of our villa. That's what happened to you too. It may be that when there is a lot of technology related to the ecological way of working, not all things open up right away. That's why we are ready to serve customers during the holidays 24/7. This is what happened to you too when you destroyed the funnel of the coffee maker by melting it with a hot plate. Esko immediately brought you a new kettle. This machine was by no means new, but a Mocca Master in perfect condition. However, you did not appreciate this service, for which I am sorry. We looked at the price of the new funnel on Mocca Master's website, where the price is €28 + shipping costs €7.90, a total of €35.90. You say its value is €16. I don't know what causes this difference. If we asked for €30 for the funnel you broke, it wouldn't be unreasonable. We gave the address where you could have gone to buy a new one. There is nothing in the villa that is more than 10 years old. It was completed in 2013, when all the kitchen furniture was also bought there new. The claim that the kettle is more than 15 years old is incorrect.
About heating and ventilation:
The house is not a passive house. No one has presented the house like this. The house has ecological geothermal heat, the heat comes from the lake with the help of a heat pump. The most ecological form of heating. Each room has its own thermostat for temperature control. For air conditioning, there is an air heat pump that can be used to cool the apartment with hot air. This function is enhanced if the doors of the rooms are kept open during the day when the apartment is heating up. When you said that there were problems with the cooling, we brought a separate fan to increase air circulation. When we brought the fan, the guests were not there. To enhance the cooling, I set the air conditioning to 18 degrees and the fan to distribute cool air around the apartment. The fan is not intended for use during the stay in the apartment, at least not at full power.
If the outside temperature is well below 15 degrees, it cannot be 22 degrees inside without additional heating. Using the fireplace at the same time as the air heat pump does not make sense. Heating takes energy, and on the other hand, if you try to lower the temperature with an air source heat pump, it also takes energy. When we strive for the most energy-efficient operation, this cannot be the right method of operation. The air heat pump actually has a function that if the front door is open for more than 30 seconds, the pump stops. This prevents the pump from being used so that the cool air goes out the door. The house has a complete ventilation system equipped with heat recovery, so opening the windows is unnecessary. This also ensures that possible mosquitoes, harmless in themselves, do not enter the apartment. The use of room-specific thermostats, on the other hand, is necessary for temperature control.
If you keep small mood fires in the fireplace, it still does not decisively disturb the heating technology of the house, but if you keep a fire in it with warm air all the time, it is clear that the system will go haywire.
As for the beach, I can say that nowhere presents a sandy beach. There is a path paved with trees and wooden stairs to the beach, which is good to walk up to and swim. There is about 2 meters of water at the end of the pier and no reeds or grass. If you've taken a kayak to the lake along the path through the forest, it's clear that it's overgrown with trees. It is not intended for customer use. Until then, the boat will be transferred to the lake in the spring and the compost will be emptied.
Hopefully, the above clarifies the situation and prevents possible misunderstandings by future customers.
We are sorry that although we tried our best to make your visit a success, we were not completely successful. Your feedback is valuable for us to develop our operations even better.
Despite everything, we hope to see you as our guest again. If not in Kaidan Kiho Villas, then in beautiful Etelä Savo.
Best wishes for Autumn, Esko the host and Leena the hostess
The house has every thing you need, even small details. Owner tried his best to help us with different kind of requests. Location is excellent and private. House is clean. A lot of beautiful country views to visit.
